Built in 1909, the Warrington Apartments is one of the city’s older apartments and one of the oldest at the southern end of Elgin street.
Continue reading Bell’s “Nickel in the Slot” Phone Unwelcome at The Warrington
Here is another short one. This time, it’s from Toronto and about an apartment that I’ve noticed every time I walk by.
Continue reading Todmorden Developments Brings ‘Bachelorama’ to the Rosedale Valley (1956)
A few weeks back, I wrote a bit on the Sandringham Apartments in Sandy Hill. While browsing the Panda Associates collection at the University of Calgary, I came across a few more views and have shared them here.
The Sandringham Apartments, located at the far eastern edge of Sandy Hill on what was once known as Regan’s Hill,1”‘Regan’s Hill’ Received It’s Name From Henry Regan and His Sons 185[?],” Ottawa Citizen, March 31, 1928, 16. has been overlooking Strathcona Park since its completion in 1958. Its developers, Range Road Developments pulled out all the stops and hired Peter Dickinson, then of Page and Steele, to design an apartment aimed at the luxury market.2For a great tour of Dickinson’s work in Ottawa, see Robert Smythe’s “Peter Dickinson in Ottawa,” (2009).
Continue reading “A Touch of Scandinavia at the top of Range Road”: The Sandringham Apartments, OttawaNotes
| ↥1 | ”‘Regan’s Hill’ Received It’s Name From Henry Regan and His Sons 185[?],” Ottawa Citizen, March 31, 1928, 16. |
|---|---|
| ↥2 | For a great tour of Dickinson’s work in Ottawa, see Robert Smythe’s “Peter Dickinson in Ottawa,” (2009). |
The above graph, adapted from Statistics Canada S232-245, applies to apartment of six units or more. I’ve noted before that the early 1960s saw unprecedented build-out in apartments in Ottawa and competition was fierce. We’re by-and-large used to rates nowadays being somewhere between 0.5 and 2.5%, but at its peak in the Ottawa-Hull CMA, it had reached 9.1%. I will be doing more with this sort of information later but figured it would be nice to share.
Continue reading Apartment Vacancy Rate in Ottawa-Hull (1964-1977)
A few years ago, I wrote a short piece about The Park Square Apartments at 425 Elgin Street in Centretown for OttawaStart. As with pretty well anything written, there are a number of things that I would do differently now, but it still gets some of the basic idea out.
Continue reading Update: Shenkman’s Park Square Apartments (1936)
I’ve always appreciated the Edgewater Apartments in New Edinburgh. In most other settings, it would be a tidy (if unremarkable) mid-century apartment block, but set in New Edinburgh – the northern portion of New Edinburgh – it takes on a whole different meaning.
Continue reading The Edgewater Apartments: Ken Greene Ruffles a few Feathers Along the ‘Royal Route’ (1951)
With all of the beautiful and interesting heritage properties that stand in Ottawa’s Sandy Hill neighbourhood, it’s somewhat interesting that the apartments above are (a) the first buildings that I really remember loving in the neighbourhood, and (b) still among my favourite. In a setting filled with delightful institutional architecture and numerous Victwardian houses, for some, it would be a wonder that a small handful of 1930s apartments are what have stuck in my mind.
Continue reading A Major Development in Sandy Hill (The Major Apartments, Besserer Street, 1937)
Around four years ago, I wrote a short piece for Ottawa Start about the Elphin Apartments, at the corner of Gladstone and Metcalfe in Ottawa’s Centretown. Given the parameters, I was generally pleased with the results but one thing really bothered me: just who was behind the apartment?
Continue reading A Modern Elf (A Brief Update to a Brief History of the Elphin), 1966
It has now been a few years since I first wrote about the Gilbert Apartments, formerly located at 293 Lisgar and soon to be the site of a new 108-unit Claridge apartment. The Werner Noffke-designed walkup was neat as a pin, but had not really received the care it might otherwise have in the intervening decades and had reached its end of life.
Just a heads-up: this one does talk about the death of senior citizens in a relatively recent period.
Continue reading Ottawa’s MacLaren House Gets all the Wrong Attention, 1967-93
A whole lot of things have changed in my life in the last little while that have resulted in me spending time rearranging things. In the middle of all of that, I have also tried to not let this whole blogging enterprise fall by the wayside. It’s one of the more enjoyable things that I have going. In between all of the other things, I’ve been continuing to pick at the long story I have going about the Canada Square project in Toronto at Yonge and Eglinton. That should come soon enough.
This one is probably better off in the ‘Blog’ section, as so much of the story is in the notes. Nevertheless, because the front hasn’t seen much since February, I’ve put it here.